


Nearly Almost Dead but Not Quite

by darthsunshine



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Gravity Falls AU, Humor, Multi, Polyamory, Supernatural Elements, an honest to god gravity falls au, i don't know what else can be said about this wreck, just saying, or a dream demon, your fav might just be a bag of gnomes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-03-18 19:47:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3581670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthsunshine/pseuds/darthsunshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a Journal. But before Clarke realizes there are other Journals she is already part of an unimaginable conspiracy and the apocalypse is at her door. </p>
<p>(Or watching Bellamy and Raven sprawled on her bed arguing how to best get rid of mermaids, Clarke thinks her summer might not be a complete failure.)</p>
<p>The Gravity Falls AU absolutely nobody asked for</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nearly Almost Dead but Not Quite

**Author's Note:**

> Clearly I have no business being in multiple fandoms at once. Because this happens.
> 
> It's just, the final episodes of both shows fell on the same week and I was a mess.

**Part One**

 

This is how it begins.

Clarke hoists up her duffel bag over her shoulder as the front door of their apartment shuts on her mother’s half finished lecture. She has a bus to catch.

 

**I.**

Everything starts one summer, when our heroine decides to leave home to spend the holiday with her great great great Uncle, as most adventure stories do. 

Which is not completely true as what brought on this decision goes back a few months but Clarke doesn't want to remember that. She doesn't want to remember her mother’s face as she slammed the door and her muffled words still audible even after she had taken a few steps. Summer is here and so is a her fresh start.

A young girl.

A new town.

The whole summer holiday filled with endless possibilities.

But Clarke doesn't know just how endless possibilities stretch in Mount Weather and the town laid in its shadow.

She doesn't start questioning anything before the impossible slap her in the face.

 

 

Clarke comes to her Uncle’s place to get away from her mother.

Abby Griffin has never been an easy woman to get along with even when her dad was alive but after Jake is gone there is a tension between mother and daughter that never resolves. There is always a tense silence between them and if not there are half formed accusations and abrasive arguments. The last one ends with Clarke on a bus going to a place her family hasn't been back to for three generations.

Mount Weather is an impressive sight. The town proper lies at the bottom of the hills surrounded by forest on all sides. Her lodging for the summer, Uncle’s house, isn't in the town but quite a few ways away from it located deep in the forest. There is even a lake on the way.

Her duffle bag gets heavier the longer she continues on the forest path -and she almost gets lost twice- but the trek helps to clear her head. And before long she stands in a clearing where a three story building stands. The porch has clearly seen better days and the billboard above the entrance spells “ _The Drop hip_ ” with a giant “ _S_ ” fallen a few ways down but Clarke thinks it has its own charm.

Uncle’s livelihood, _The DropShip_ , actually turns out to be some sort of a museum mostly focused on supposed aliens and completely not fake U.F.O sightings. Even on the outside the building is made to resemble a spaceship.

It’s a tourist trap. A mystery shack. Clarke thinks the real mystery is why anyone comes to this place.

First floor has the exhibits visitors pay a ridiculous amount of money to take pictures with fake monsters and a gift shop at the side with even more ridiculously prized knick-knacks. Through the back of the gift shop there is an entrance to the house itself where there is a small living room and a smaller kitchen.

Clarke learns the bedrooms are on the second floor and she doesn't learn whats on the third floor ever.

For somewhere quite separated from civilization she thinks she can easily get used to this place. She takes a deep breath and enters through the back door.

 

 

After the journey is over Clarke realizes leaving everything behind is not as easy as getting off the bus and inhaling the fresh air of the forest for the first time.

She is still angry the first days she spends at The DropShip.

What has gone down between her and her mother is still bothering her, a small voice in the back of her mind whispering constantly _Something is not right, things are never adding up_. However Clarke has no proof and she has no way of getting any proof so she resolves to ignore the feeling as best as she can. Tries to focus on having fun for the summer.

Alas, working at Uncle’s weird shop does not turn out to be as apt as easing her worries as she had hoped it would. There are particular reasons for this.

First there are the Blake siblings that also work there.

The older one, Bellamy, works as a janitor and occasionally does repairs around the museum and the house. Clarke and Bellamy get off to a horrendous start. As soon as Clarke steps through the door she bumps into Bellamy who brandishes the mop at her as if its a weapon and tells her _Just because she is the great niece of the Boss or whatever doesn't mean they will fall to the floor at her feet._

Clarke is greatly confused because it hasn't even been three seconds and this guy already has an opinion of her based on what exactly? Clark frowns at his unfounded hostility and pushes the mop away from her face to look at him properly and say _Great. I didn't want special treatment in the first place_ before she moves past him to go through the house.

She just wants to spend her summer in peace. As she drags her bag to the second floor Bellamy’s muttered “Princess” follows her up the stairs. _What a dick_. It’s a shame, at first glance she thinks the guy is kind of handsome.

Then there is the younger Blake, Octavia, who works as a tour guide of some sort in the exhibits. She is all hard edges and feral smiles but is infinitely better than her brother. Her first meeting with Octavia is significantly less tense compared to Bellamy but she thinks thats more on Octavia not caring than Octavia being a nice person.

She is not all bad though, friendly even once you get over the tough Blake exterior. She does complain that Clarke is no fun but she always invites, sometimes drags, Clarke to join her in her own brand of “fun”. Which is just teenage trouble honestly but thats what Clarke maybe needs this summer. Seeing Bellamy in the verge of tearing his hair out whenever Octavia gets herself in trouble is also a bonus.

Then there is the fact that The DropShip is a giant scam. Her great great great Uncle has an amazing collection of probably the most fake artifacts.

Clarke can clearly see that the alien hybrid in the cage is paper-mache but the visitors coo and awe at it with cameras flashing. Maybe people of this town are extraordinarily blind. Maybe Uncle is a genius. Probably a bit of both. It is extremely annoying.

There are good things about working there though.

One of them is the flexible hours.

The other is Raven Reyes who part time works as a cashier in the Gift Shop and works at the car repair shop downtown when she is not there. She is witty and bright and her ponytail sometimes gets undone during the day and Clarke has learned how to do a french-braid from Octavia so she braids Raven’s hair when that happens.

Their meeting is awkward at best but after the first time Clarke braids Raven hair -she spends the entire time chattering about engine parts which Clarke has no idea about but she lets out agreement noises when prompted and Raven finds this hilarious- they become fast friends.

Clarke begins to think her summer might not be a complete bust yet.

 

**II.**

Clarke goes on morning walks through the woods.

She has lived in the city her whole life and the freedom The DropShip and the surrounding forest offers compared to the dull grey buildings of Ark City is truly refreshing.

She likes to be able to touch the trees and feel the rough bark under her fingers, she likes the fresh smell of the greenery and the blue blue sky. She loves the feel of the earth crunching under her boots, the root sticking out of the ground-

She trips and falls on her face with a shriek of “ _Shit._ ”

She has landed painfully on her shoulder. When she tries to get up her arm doesn’t support her weight and she falls again, this time hitting her head against the tree she barely the missed the first time. There is an echoey thunk. _Motherfucker- Wait, what was that sound?_

She hasn't seen many trees in Ark City but she knows that’s not the sound trees make. To make sure it wasn't just something born out of the confusion of her fall, she scuttles closer to the tree and knocks her hand against it.

Again there is that almost metallic echo. _What the hell?_ It sounds like the inside of the tree is hollow. She looks around the tree -is this even a tree- but everything looks normal. She smoothes her hands down the bark to feel if there is anything unusual when her nails snag on a section of the bark raised a little from the surrounding surface.

Clarke pushes and pulls at it until the bark comes of with a snap and losing balance she once again finds herself on her ass in the dirt.

She looks up to see a hatch swinging open, covering a hollowed out section of the tree. She fearfully reaches her inside _Please don’t be spiders, please no spiders_ when her fingers close around a control box. There are some buttons and switches on it. With a lack of anything else to do she tinkers with them. Suddenly there is a whirring sound and a few steps away from the three the ground opens up. Uncertain Clarke moves away from the controls to peer down the hole. There is something inside. She takes it out and blows on it to clear the dust which induces a coughing fit.

It is a book. An old one if the frayed edges and the amount of water damage is any indication. There is a gold image of a six fingered hand on the cover. The number “3” written inside the hand. Very peculiar.

Clarke sits at the base of the tree and flips through the book. It is a journal.

“ _June 18 It is hard to believe it has been 6 years since I began researching the strange and wondrous secrets of Mount Weather._

 _In all my travels, never have I observed so many curious things! Mt. Weather is indeed a geographical oddity._ ”

If there is one thing Clarke agrees, this town is the oddest place she has ever been in. She continues.

“ _Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed, I’m being watched._

_I must hide this book before They find it._

_Remember— in Mount Weather there is no one you can trust._

_TRUST NO ONE!_ ”

Officially interested, Clarke reads page after page growing more and more incredulous as the Journal goes on about the true nature of the town and forest around Mt. Weather.

Of course she has thought there were somethings really wrong with the town -the exhibits in the DropShip are fake and Clarke doesn't believe in the supernatural anyway but even she can’t deny things don’t feel entirely right in Mt. Weather- but isn't this too much? There is no way any of this is real, is there?

She remembers the lone mailbox out in the middle of a swamp with not a house or anything else in sight, the islands that appear and disappear in the lake. The townsfolk who see but ask no questions and has no answers.

Clarke gets up and closes the hatch on the tree but she pockets the Journal just in case.

 

 

After the couple of days she finds the Journal Clarke still doesn’t believe a thing, even though she keeps it close and reads through it occasionally.

The way she discovers that the writings inside it are in fact true is very anti-climatic.

She is again walking through the woods to clear her head when she sees she has stepped on a big footprint. A really really big footprint. Curious she backs away to see clearer and once she climbs sufficiently high enough to see the ground from a better point she realizes the big footprint is actually inside an even bigger footprint, larger than Clarke’s body.

Curiouser and curiouser.

She gets back down and thinks maybe its a prank by the local kids. It could even be another scam of her Uncle’s.

Then she quite literally runs into Bigfoot on her way back. The creature is huge and has brown fur all over its body. She takes a second to think the smaller footprint must belong to it before realizing there must be an even bigger creature roaming through the woods.

Bigfoot sluggishly raises a hand and in a deep, slow voice says “Hi.”

Clarke faints.

 

 

She wakes up staring at the canopy above. _Was I dreaming?_

When she turns her head aside she sees Bigfoot sitting beside her. She feels entirely justified about the shriek that comes out of her mouth at the sight.

Bigfoot pushes an apple at her and Clarke is too scared to do anything but take it. “Human baby, no scare.” The creature says. It gets up to move back into the woods. It waves at her again. “No sleep on forest floor.” I

t takes Clarke the better part of an hour to stop shaking and get up from the floor.

She needs to take a better look at that Journal.

 

**III.**

Despite the revelation about the Journal and the woods they live in, not much changes in Clarke’s daily routine.

She still takes walks around the forest. Does the chores given to her around The DropShip. Starts making friends.

With Octavia becoming friends is not hard. Octavia bulldozes her way through to you until you are willing to be an accomplice to whatever she is planning.

With Raven it’s easier than learning how to do a french braid and it becomes as natural as breathing.

Unlike the two girls, the first time Clarke and Bellamy truly start getting along is unsurprisingly in the heart of danger.

 

 

“You know what? I’m going to prove to you this time, that whatever is in this Journal is real.”

Bellamy is supremely uninterested in the topic, a week of Clarke trying to drag him around to prove that there is something paranormal in the forest only for them to turn out to be things like a fox hiding in the bush or a crazy shadow of the garbage has desensitized him. He goes back to flipping pancakes, O could be waking up any minute now.

He wonders when exactly the somewhat tolerable Clarke Griffin went completely bat shit crazy.

The first days after their tense meeting he resolves to ignore Clarke’s presence in The DropShip as best as he can. The following week is better when he realizes Clarke can pull her own weight around the shop and that she isn't completely an entitled princess. Even if he continues to call her as such.

So their dynamic shifts from Bellamy flat out ignoring her except throwing in snide remarks to the two of them bickering constantly over the most mundane things.

_Hey, give the remote back. I’m watching Ghost Harassers!_

_That show is not historically accurate, I’m not watching that._

_I got here first Blake, you can go sit on the porch and watch historically accurate summer bugs._

_You wanna play who got here first? I was living here before you even came Griffin. Step aside, we are watching The Planet People of Planet Planet._

It isn’t exactly bad, the routine they fall into. Annoying Clarke turns out to be a quite fun past time. But at the beginning of the week something changes. One day Clarke gets home with ripped jeans and scratches on her hands. She is unnaturally pale. Bellamy is about to ask if she is okay when she shoves a book in his face muttering _What the fuck is wrong with this town?_

He smacks the book away. “Griffin what is it? You look like you have seen a ghost.”

“Ha. Ha. Very funny.”She says and moves past him to collapse on the couch. Bellamy pushes her legs away to make himself room before settling down to look through the book she had shoved at him.

After he is done he declares it all bullshit. Clarke looks at him imploringly under the arm she had thrown over her eyes. “I’ve been living here a long time, Princess. The realest monster around these parts is the one in the exhibit downstairs and you know its made of plastic.”

She is somewhat reassured but she still can’t shake the feeling that the Journal is right about this town. The blood stains, the burned pages. Why would someone keep such a journal if it’s just fairytales? Why would they go to such lengths to hide it in the forest?

 _Trust No One_ , she remembers. And sure, Bellamy isn't high on her list of trusty people on a good day but as arrogant and annoying as he is she knows he is dependable, can see that every time Octavia looks at him. Besides who else could she bother with this in the first place?

But he doesn't believe her. Which shifts their dynamic from meaningless bickering to Clarke pestering Bellamy about the Journal and him trying to disprove her wild theories.

Oh yeah, Bellamy remembers as he transfers the done pancakes to a plate, it was the day she found that goddamn Journal.

He brings the plate to the table where Clarke has spread the newspaper looking for unusual happenings in town, trying to match anything in the Journal open on her lap. Looking ready to argue her way through Bellamy’s eye rolling which has become a normal occurrence at breakfast table this past week.

“Come with me to the lake today.” She says. “I heard stories about a lake monster.”

Bellamy actually laughs at that. “Why would I ever come?”

Clarke victoriously opens a page in the newspaper pointing to an ad.

“Human sized hamster balls?”

“No not that!” She points to the next page. “There is a contest. One grand cash to whoever takes a real picture of a monster. If you come with me we will split the money.”

“I still don’t buy into this whole supernatural shit, Princess. For all I know I’ll waste an entire afternoon with nothing to show for it.”

Clarke _does_ buy into the whole supernatural shit, she almost swallowed a fairy the other day, but there is a possibility they won’t capture the monster on film and won’t win the prize money. “I’ll cover your shift for the remainder of this week? Then you can go do whatever shady things you do in town.”

“What shady things?” Raven enters with the morning coffee she grabs for them from town before arriving for her shift every morning and the discussion is over. Clarke narrows her eyes at him over her cup and Bellamy sighs before nodding his head.

 

 

When they arrive at the lake pretty much the whole town is there. It turns out to be the opening day of the new fishing season.

Crazy Jasper is there as well, running around the dock, goggles perched on his wild hair as always. “I’ve seen it!! I’ve seen it again!”

“Mount Weather Gobblewonker. Come quick before it scrapdoodles away!”

The park ranger tries to shut him up but Crazy Jasper runs to the shore screaming. “This time I got proof.” He points to the broken remains of a boat floating next to the small dock.

“It was the Gobblewonker that gone done it. It had a long neck like a giraffe. Wriggling skin like- like-” His arm swinging wildly around hits one of the bystanders, and old fisher. “That gentleman right here!”

“You gotta believe me!”

The park ranger dismisses Crazy Jasper and assures the gathered fishers that of course there isn't such a thing as a lake monster. But by the time he is gone Clarke is bouncing on her feet excited.

She leans towards Bellamy her voice low and conspirational. “See? See, what Jasper just said?”

Bellamy looks down at her unimpressed. “I also saw the ranger say Jasper is a crazy person.”

Clarke is undeterred. They quickly find a boat for rent to set off in search of the lake monster.

 

 

She doesn't know how to work a boat. In her defence she is the brains of this operation not the transporter.

“A princess after all, huh?” Bellamy mocks and sits next to the motor. “Where to?”

Clarke points to the small island covered in fog in the middle of the lake. “There. Crazy Jasper swears up and down that he saw the Gobblewonker last at Scuttlebutt Island.”

Bellamy is inclined to point out again people call Crazy Jasper _crazy_ for a reason but he is already in the boat with Clarke so whining anymore feels redundant.

“We are gonna find the Gobblewonker! And get that prize money!”

Bellamy stares at Clarke’s already pink face. It’s noon on a cloudless day.

“Hey, do you have sunscreen?”

Clarke stares back at the freckles dotting Bellamy’s face.

“We are gonna get sunscreen!”

 

 

When they set off again Clarke is almost vibrating where she stands. “If want to win this contest we have to do things right.” She jumps to her feet. “What is the number one problem with most monster hunts?”

She is in full out lecture mode eyebrows drawn together, one hand in the air. Bellamy shakes his head. “The side character dies in the first five minutes of the movie. Wait a second Griffin, am I the side character here? Did you plan this “monster hunt” schtick to get rid of me?”

Clarke sits back down with a huff. “No. I mean you are not my favourite person around here Blake but who would bother with such a scheme just to get rid of you?”

Bellamy frowns. That isn’t exactly an answer. He is about to press on when Clarke shakes a finger at him. “Camera trouble.”

“Say, Bigfoot shows up. Oh there he is! Uh-oh, where is my camera? Here is one. Shoot, no film.” She waves her hands around. “You see what I’m doing here?”

She has clearly gone insane, he sees that.

“That’s why I brought several cameras.” She pushes a bag at him. “There is no way we are going to miss this.”

Bellamy takes out one of the disposable cameras and in an exaggerated show of losing his balance drops it in the water. Clarke narrows her eyes at him but smiles tightly. “It’s okay. This is exactly why I brought extra.”

There is no shaking her. “So what do we do _Captain_?” Bellamy asks as he steers the boat towards the island. It doesn’t feel as right on his tongue as Princess.

“First item on the agenda.” Clarke says. “Lure the monster with fish food.”

The fog rolls in as they get closer to the island. Clarke continues to throw fish food overboard to make a trail while Bellamy steers. They are silent. Even though the monster hunt thing is completely crazy, sitting on the boat not talking like this is kind of relaxing. It starts feeling more like his afternoon is not completely wasted. At one point the fog is so thick he can’t even clearly make our Clarke’s features on the other end of the small boat.

They realize they have reached the island when the bottom of the boat skids against the shore. They get off and Clarke brings out a lantern. “See? I’m prepared.” Before they set off deeper into the fog.

 

 

Clarke gets more and more tense the further they go inland. When Bellamy stops her with a hand on her shoulder she almost jumps a feet off the ground. “Wait are you actually scared Princess?”

This is ridiculous. He thinks maybe staying at The DropShip and constant exposure to her Uncle has made her go crazy on the supernatural stuff a little. There is no way an actual monster lives on this island.

“No! Of course not.” She has that stubborn look he has come to associate with Clarke on her face. Despite himself he smiles a little.

Just then a roar echoes around them. _What was that?_ Clarke drops the lantern in panic and the light is snuffed out.

“Did you hear that?! Shit I can’t see anything.”

Bellamy walks closer and his hand finds her shoulders again. “Princess let’s just go back. This is a waste of our time.”

“Bellamy. Imagine what would happen if we actually got a picture! You know what, you can have the whole prize money, get Octavia something nice for her birthday.” _And I’ll get to prove the Journal is legitimate._

They walk further into the island when another rumble sweeps through the area. A flock of birds escape in the opposite direction. Clarke grins and gets out one of the cameras. “This is it.” Bellamy sighs and follows.

As they get closer Bellamy starts to pick out a small body of water ahead of them and inside the fog there is the shadow of something floating. Eerily resembling in shape what Crazy Jasper was raving about. Clarke pulls him down from his sleeve behind a log and tells him to have his camera ready.

She suddenly leaps forward and slightly panicked Bellamy runs after her with the camera in hand. When the fog clears a little next to the water they see the shadows belong to a shipwreck. Not a monster. Bellamy lets out a laugh. He can’t believe he actually got apprehensive a minute there. Crazy Jasper is crazy after all.

“But. What about that noise?”

He is about to tell her there should be a reasonable explanation for that when there is another rumble, this time closer to them, and the surface of the water wavers.

Clarke barely misses getting hit by a giant tail when she throws herself to the ground when something that fits Jasper’s description exactly -long neck, wriggly skin- rises up from the water. Clarke digs in her back pocket for a camera. Bellamy stares transfixed at the creature. _There is no way this is real, right?_

“Come on this is our chance.” Clarke shouts but he slowly backs away from the water. No way.

The Gobblewonker rises up again, this time entirely too close to Clarke who is on the edge of the water. “Princess-”

“What is wrong with you?” She waves the camera at him. “All you gotta do is point and shoot.” She turns back to do just that when she comes face to face with the monster. It roars in her face blowing away strands of blond hair. She throws the camera at it in reflex and turns round again to run, Bellamy following closely behind.

The Loch Ness Monster look-alike continues to pursue them on land. Clarke turns around while she is running with another disposable camera in hand and snaps a picture but she doesn't see the root sticking out under the overgrowth and trips dropping the camera. She is actually about to go back for it when Bellamy garbs her from the collar of her shirt and pulls her along.

“No time for that!” He yells and ducks away with her into the woods.

 

 

They are hiding behind a tree.

“Bellamy.”

There is a roar coming towards them, so much for the the camouflage Clarke thinks. Bellamy is unresponsive next to her, head rolled back against the trunk eyes wide. He looks like a ghost. This is not the Bellamy she has come to know this summer. The Bellamy she knows is infuriating to be sure but he is always willing to put up a fight. The look of surrender doesn't suit him.

Her hand lands on his knee and squeezes. “You are okay. Okay? Bellamy, I can’t do this without you.”

He regains life at her words. “Do _what_ Clarke? It’s a 45 feet lake monster, what were you planning to do with me in the first place?!”

She almost slaps him with a lack of anything else to do. She doesn’t. She understands his shock. She has been there a week ago albeit when she got her proof it was much less harmful.

He looks almost scared. “Look, I don’t know. But you have to face this.”

“Yeah, like you faced your mom?” He sneers. They had talked about that before. Why no one had come from her family in generations to visit their great great great Uncle, why she had escaped from the city to do so. She is almost used to it, how Bellamy attacks personal when he feels he is in a vulnerable position. Though Clarke was starting to think they were better than that now, _friends_ dare she say it.

“You are right.” Although this is so not the time and place for family counselling. No matter how similar Abby can be to a ancient dinosaur monster.

“I don’t want to face my mother. I don’t want to face anything in this town either. But there has to be a reason I found that Journal.” Yes, this place is insane. Yes, Clarke is sometimes scared. But even with everything crazy going on, The DropShip feels more like home than Ark City. She wants to keep that.

“We can deal with this. And you may be a total ass half the time but I need you. We can figure something out together, yeah?”

Bellamy shakes his head to clear it, he should have believed Clarke the first day. It’s a bitter revelation to have sitting behind a tree in fog while a monster is chasing them. “Yeah, okay. Together.”

There is a louder roar. Clarke grabs his hand rolls them away and into the mud just as the Gobblewonker crashes against the tree.

“What’s the plan now Princess?” He shouts.

“Run!”

She still has a tight grip on his wrist after she pulls them up from the mud and dashes to the boat waiting for them on the edge of the island. The fog is cold. Clarke’s hand remains warm.

 

 

When they reach the boat Clarke pushes it further into the water while Bellamy tries to start up the motor. When the boat is moving, she jumps in and looks for another camera to capture a picture of the Gobblewonker steadily gaining on them. “What! Cracked lens?” She throws it away.

The Gobblewonker dives into the water after them. Bellamy tries to go faster but it’s a small boat and they are up against a 45 feet water creature. Clarke continues trying to find an intact camera in the bag. The monster slams into the boat from under and he almost falls overboard.

“Where to?!”

She pulls out the damn Journal and flips through it quickly. She points ahead to a waterfall. “There! There might be a cave behind that waterfall.”

“Might be?!” Bellamy yells but without another option steers the boat towards the waterfall full speed, waiting for an impact. There is a whoosh of water over them and the boat crashes against the rocky surface of the cave behind it.

The Gobblewonker chases right after them and Bellamy thinks he never said goodbye to O before they left this afternoon but the monster gets stuck in the cave entrance, its body too big to fit through. He breathes a sigh of relief.

“It’s stuck.” Clarke pats herself. “Shit, I have no cameras left.”

She looks so genuinely upset that Bellamy feels like he could have laughed if they weren’t trapped in a cave by a lake beast. It continues to struggle to get through, causing the cave to shake a little. Some rocks hanging over head come lose and falls onto its head. The giant head falls down into the water with a thunk. There is a crackle and its eyes suddenly go dark.

Clarke climbs on top of it and motions towards Bellamy. “Hey, come check this out.”

He feels very inclined to disagree but he looks up to see her looking at him with wide blue eyes and hands waving him towards her excitedly. He gets up to climb next to her. She points to a hatch on top of the creatures body. They get it open together without much effort.

When the smoke clears they see a little control room and in the middle of it Crazy Jasper fiddling with switches.

“What? You? _You_ made this?” She shrieks. “Why?!”

Crazy Jasper adjusts the goggles on his head. “Well I, I just wanted some attention.”

“But. I still don’t understand.”

“First I just hootynanied up a bio-mechanical brain wave generator and then I learned how to operate a stick shift.”

“Okay. Yeah, but why?”

“No body believe me anymore so I figured maybe I’d catch their fancy with a 15 ton aquatic robot.” He starts cackling then suddenly stops. “In retrospect it seems a bit contrived.”

“I made a lot of robots in my day. Like when my girlfriend left me to join a secret cult and I created a homicidal pterodactyl-tron. And when my best bud betrayed me so I constructed an 80 ton shame-bot that exploded the entire downtown area!”

He starts laughing again and jumps back to disappear inside the control room. “Well time to work on my death ray. Any of you got a screwdriver?”

Clarke gets up and sighs. “So much for the monster hunt.”

Bellamy feels dizzy. Ignoring what Clarke said and finding himself being chased by a giant lake monster, questioning his beliefs and deciding to trust Clarke only for the monster to turn out to be a robot. In the end he smirks at her, so there is an explanation after all no matter how crazy. Nothing supernatural.

 

 

When Crazy Jasper backs the robot out of the entrance they drag the remains of the boat to the water and start paddling back to the shore. They are halfway there, Clarke agreeing to pay for the damaged boat, when there is another roar and a huge shadow passes underneath them.

Bellamy looks down. Then looks back up at the robot swimming ahead of them. _What the hell?_

What looks like a very organic Gobblewonker rises up from the water and slams against the mechanical one.

Dumbfounded Bellamy watches the fight, _those look like real shiny scales_ , and he feels his world turn upside down once again in the span of a few hours. Clarke starts moaning behind him about camera troubles.

He gets out of his stupor enough to grab onto Clarke and pull her out of the way when the real Gobblewonker dives back creating a huge wave. It still crashes over them and sweeps them towards to the shore.

When the water recedes they sprawl on the shore next to each other on their backs coughing.

“So that happened.” Bellamy says.

“We don’t have a picture.”

They barely escape with their lives from the fake giant lake monster and the real one but they don’t have anything to show for it except the broken pieces of the boat scattered in the sand around them.

 

 

When they drag their sorry asses back to The DropShip -the whole way she talks about the Journal and how much of it she actually encountered in the forest so far- even though she has no picture for the contest she feels content that at least Bellamy believes her now.

They are both bruised and tired, arms around each other to help the other walk. “Brave Princess.” He sighs next to her ear and Clarke thinks it’s not fair how he can wield the word as an insult one minute and as an endearment the next.

But this feels like victory.

 

**IV.**

Clarke meets a cute boy during one of her supply runs to the town who insists on helping her with the grocery bags and is shamelessly flirty during their short walk. She thinks she’s finally getting her well deserved cliche summer romance.

His name is Finn. He gives her a small deer with two heads made out of metal scraps and honestly Clarke has seen weirder in real life but the gesture is endearing.

She agrees to a date.

 

 

Clarke goes down the stairs with Octavia in tow, telling her about the boy from the town. They have been on one and a half dates and she really enjoys his company. Clarke hadn't thought she would find someone this fast when she came to Mt. Weather, not that she was looking to find anyone but the lack of her mother in the first place but Finn, despite looking almost jointless and being surprised by the most common things, is the definition of a small town heart throb and she isn't really complaining.

Sometimes he is weird yeah, but honestly who in this town isn't a little weird.

“I don’t know Octavia. Maybe this is too fast, I haven't even been here for a month.”

“Oh come on, who cares, its your summer holiday. Whatever the hell you want am I right? So who is this guy anyway?”

They pass the living room and turn the corner to the employees only entrance to the Gift Shop.

“I haven’t told you? He works in the grocery store downtown, his name is-”

When they enter Raven, her red jacket on as always, is leaning on the counter talking to a boy. The boy plays with the pendant on her neck.

“Hey guys!” Raven turns to them. “This is my boyfriend. Finn Collins.”

Clarke stops at the entry. Octavia bumps into her back.

Raven steps away from the counter and move towards them. “Don’t be weird and just stand there Griffin, come say Hi.”

Clarke is sure her face is frozen in shock still and she tries to fix a smile in face. She can almost picture how forced it must look.

Finn holds out his hand for a shake. “Nice to meet you.”

Clarke does the same and she hopes Finn can see cold anger in her eyes.

“Nice to meet you. Finn, was it?”

 

 

It’s a tense few days in The DropShip.

After the first day Clarke sees Finn and Raven and immediately breaks off her relationship with him via a strongly worded text, she spends the rest of the afternoon moping around the house. If Bellamy notices he doesn't say anything but although it’s her turn to cook that night, when she drags herself down to the kitchen he already has the table set and their dinner ready. _Thanks_ , she mouths at him over the food as the rest of The DropShip’s inhabitants join them.

She didn’t know Finn had a girlfriend, that fucking asshole, but she feels incredibly guilty for what she did to Raven. More than that she feels angry at Finn for what _he_ did to Raven. She feels cheated as well but she was never serious about Finn, didn't see anything in him beyond some summer fun but she sees that day in the way Raven looks at him, for the other girl it isn't so simple. She should have asked around more about Finn before jumping on the summer romance train, found out he had a girlfriend somehow. This is also her fault.

Finn isn't important for her, but Raven is. Raven is her friend. Clarke is extremely stressed about how this is going to affect her when she finds out. Will she find out? Would Finn tell her? She doesn't really expect him to. Should she? In one hand she doesn't want to meddle but on the other hand she doesn't want Raven to be with someone that doesn't give her their one hundred percent.

The next day she is still debating if and how she should come clean with Raven when the girl comes through the employees only entrance to the house and into the kitchen with coffee as she always does. But, this time she doesn't have coffee for Clarke. The Blake siblings throw them confused looks but neither say anything.

This is bad. What did Finn tell her? How much? Clarke tries to get Raven alone during the day to talk to her but she is always brushed off one way or another.

Later that night, coming clean with Octavia and Bellamy because she feels like she will bursts if she doesn't talk to someone, she learns through Octavia’s contacts that Raven is still together with Finn. She paces through the living room agitated.

She doesn't know what she expected, for Raven to chose her friendship over Finn? She rants at them “Why would Raven do this to herself? She deserves better!”

Bellamy agrees but Octavia explains that Raven and Collins knew each other for a long time, even though they started dating recently, and that they had a complicated history. Still.

She makes to grab her coat and storm out, to do what, she doesn't know, but Bellamy catches her at the door and lifting her up from the arms, even while she struggles and mutters about talking to Raven, sits her down on the couch.

“Maybe she doesn't want you to.” He says. “That coffee stunt this morning was pretty clear.”

It was. And its a bitter pill to swallow. There will be no more jokes over the Gift Shop counter. No more watching stupid reality shows with her -Raven’s favourite was _Why You Ackin’ So Cray Cray?_ on Channel 3- and laughing their asses off on lazy Sunday afternoons.

When she looks like she is about to cry Octavia sits beside her. “You’ll get a chance to sort things out with Raven, don’t worry.”

 

 

The following day Clarke decides to be mature about this. Raven is an adult she can make her own choices, Clarke will respect that. She wants to chase Finn off with a broom when he comes by The DropShip, a course of action approved by Bellamy, but she keeps her distance no matter how much she misses spending time with Raven.

However now that she is an observing party on the outside Finn starts looking more and more peculiar. In light of what she learned about Mt. Weather so far she decides to keep an eye on them to make sure Raven is in no danger.

Their dates go normal much to her chagrin. Even though she notices more and more how uncoordinated Finn is, how weirdly he moves and how much he slams into things. She consults the Journal, what she finds isn't promising. But there is nothing truly incriminating Clarke can use so she decides to give up. Not before she talks to Raven though. She at least wants to fix something.

Which goes as spectacularly disastrous as one might expect.

She catches up to Raven when she is leaving after her shift just outside the Gift Shop.

“We need to talk about Finn.” She begins, unsure how to navigate her way through the cheating to the possibility that he may not be human.

Raven tenses before she turns to Clarke with a clipped, “What is there to talk about?” She turns back to the road. Clarke had prepared a whole speech, that she even practiced with Bellamy and Octavia but seeing Raven about to leave again throws everything to the wind. She blurts out whatever she is feeling.

“I didn't know! I’m so, so sorry, I should have found out about it before I agreed to go out with him, but I didn't know he had a girlfriend. I’d never hurt you intentionally Raven.”

“What.” Finn hadn't told her that?

“I broke it off as soon as I saw you together and figured it out, I swear.”

“You didn't know?”

“I didn’t. Honest.”

Raven walks back to her. She is still tense but Raven walks back to her. Clarke counts it as a small victory.

Now for the hard part. “But, that’s not only what i wanted to talk to you about. Finn isn't what he seems.”

 _Yeah_ , Raven had figured that out, _thank you very much_. But for the longest time Finn was the closest person to her and when he told her about Clarke she was upset, of course she was upset, but she didn't know what to do. Didn't really know how to live without Finn’s company. It was easier to just pretend nothing happened. But she couldn't deal with playing friends with Clarke after that. It hurt almost as much as Finn’s betrayal, that Clarke, the Clarke who would sit behind her at the counter and listen to stories she didn't understand just because it entertained Raven during slow shifts, would do that to her.

She hadn't known Clarke was as caught unaware as she was.

Clarke brings out an old book and extends it towards Raven with uncertain hands. She points to a marked page, _Creature No 6: Undead_.

Raven takes the book and flips through it surprised. She was expecting a heart to heart talk which she sort of got but not this. “This is nonsense. Has your Uncle gotten to you? What’s this have to do with anything?”

“It’s about Finn. I think he might not be as human as you-“

 _What is she playing at?_ Raven doesn't understand, has Clarke gone insane the short time she stopped interacting with her?

“Look, Griffin I believe you about not knowing right now. I know you are not really that kind of person. It looks like we were both tricked but I’ve known Finn for a long time. I’ll fix this.”

She shoves the Journal back to Clarke. “I don’t have time for camp fire stories right now though.”

Clarke visibly slumps. “I’m trying to protect you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

She watches until Raven’s back is no longer visible on the familiar path leading to the town.

 

 

She goes up to Bellamy’s room and throws herself on his bed.

“It all adds up. The stagger. The paleness of his skin. Have you noticed he never blinks?”

Bellamy sits next to her and pats her back. “Maybe he is blinking when you are blinking.”

“You believe me right?”

“Princess I believe you about the Journal now but all I’m saying is maybe you are reading too much into the situation with Finn? You sure you are not jealous?”

Clarke levels him with a glare. “I’m not. It’s just, what if something happens to Raven?”

“You know I’m no fan of Collins, I also think Reyes should ditch his ass but during the time you dated him how many brains did you see the guy eat?”

“You are right.”

She should just give up, let Raven handle the situation however she wishes. Maybe she _is_ being a little paranoid.

“My wisdom is both a blessing and a curse.”

Clarke reaches behind her to grab a pillow and throw it at Bellamy’s face.

 

 

The next day Clarke watches from the kitchen window when Finn comes by to pick Raven up.

“Bellamy is right. I don’t have any real evidence.” _I decided to let them sort it out between themselves. I’m not gonna meddle._

Finn throws an arm around Raven’s shoulders like usual and his hand falls down to the ground which he picks up discreetly with his other hand and attaches it back to his sleeve like usual-

“Wait. What?!”

Shit. _I was right_. “Bellamy.” She calls back to the house. There is no response. “Bellamy!” She looks around, he isn't inside. She’ll just have to handle this on her own.

Clarke grabs a shovel and hops on to the golfing cart Uncle uses as a car around the place.

She needs to help Raven.

 

 

Raven stops a few ways down from the main road. What happened with Clarke has opened her eyes to a few things wrong with their relationship. She needs to get everything out into the open if she wants to settle everything with Finn once and for all.

“Finally we are alone.”

“Yes. Alone.” Finn sends her his usual easy smile but now Raven feels disillusioned by it. “There is something I wanted to tell you.”

Raven taps her foot. Oh this should be good. Is he going to come clean about Clarke not knowing about her?

“Just don’t freak out, okay?”

Raven nods her head and slowly Finn reaches his hand up and opens the jacket he always wears.

There, standing before her is a tower of _Gnomes_. Finn’s face belongs to the one on top. They throw away the sticks with human hands on them and all their eyes focus on her. “Is this weird? Do you need to sit down?”

Raven blinks once. _Gnomes_. She blinks again. _I told Clarke she was crazy_. Again. _This can’t be fucking happening right now._

“Alright, alright. I’ll explain.” Finn steps down from the top of the other Gnomes to the ground. “First of we are Gnomes.” He laughs and it’s just _so_ Finn, Raven doesn’t know how to feel. “Let’s get that out of the way. I’m Finn.” He starts pointing to the other ones. “And here we have Del, Jones, Glen, Myles and.. Oh I’m sorry I always forget your name.” “Shmebulock.” “Yeah, and that’s Shmebulock.”

This is unbelievable. Her best friend. Her first love.

“Look, the thing is us Gnomes have been looking for a Queen. We had chosen you and have been following you for a long time. What happened with Clarke was a total mess, thought we could convince her to be the Queen easier but she kicked us out as soon as she saw you with us. Clearly we are a bit unclear on human relationship boundaries.”

Clarke was telling the truth. She remembers the wacky Journal. Clarke was telling the truth about _everything._

“So what do you say?” He cannot be serious.

“No.” Raven snaps. “I can’t even acknowledge that you are Gnomes right now. GNOMES. And you cheated on me. I don’t give a crap about you searching for a Queen. You lied to me.”

There is no way.

Finn has the gall to look forlorn. “We understand. We didn't want to do this the hard way but-” He nods towards the other Gnomes.

At his signal they leap up with ropes and try to restrain her. In panic Raven screams out as loud as she can.

 

 

Clarke steps on the gas when she hears a scream. “I’m coming Raven! I’m going to save you from the zombie!”

_Hold on!_

She drives straight into a tunnel surrounded by moss, where the screams lead her to. She hits the breaks when she sees lights ahead and jumps out of the golf cart.

Raven is there kicking and screaming at the Gnomes who are restraining her on the ground by ropes. There is a huge population of Gnomes surrounding them.

“The more you struggle, the more awkward this is going to be for everybody.” One of them says. The voice is eerily familiar. _Finn?!_

Raven continues to struggle. Clarke stops in her tracks with the shovel in her hand. “What the heck is going on here?” Where are the zombies?

“Clarke!” Raven turns at her voice. “You were right! Well not completely right-” She kicks a Gnome in the face. “Obviously.”

 _Gnomes? I was way off._ Clarke quickly opens the Journal. _Creature No 24: Gnomes, Little man of the Mt. Weather forest. Weaknesses: ?_ She smacks it closed. No weaknesses? There must be something she can do.

She runs up to one of the Gnomes. “Let go of Raven!”

The Gnome turns around and Clarke stares dumbly at Finn’s face atop the tiny body.

“Oh Clarke!” Awkward laugh. “Sorry about what happened before. With you and me and- this is just a big misunderstanding.”

“We won’t hurt her. See, Raven is just going to marry all 1,000 of us and become the Gnome Queen for all eternity.”

 _There is no fucking way_ , Raven’s voice echoes from under the pile of Gnomes trying to hold her down. Clarke agrees.

“Give her back right now or else!”

“You think you can stop us Clarke? You have no idea what we are capable of. Gnomes are a powerful race!”

Clarke hits Finn with the shovel and leaps forward to cut Raven from her bonds. She helps the other girl onto the the golf cart.

“Hey are you okay?”

 

 

She steps on the gas and reverses out of the moss tunnel to the Gnomes screaming after them. They speed through the forest.

“Hurry, they might catch up.” Raven says.

Clarke feeling relieved that Raven is alright and with the heady sensation of being right, somewhat, laughs and says “Don’t worry. Have you seen their tiny little legs? There is no way-”

A giant shadow falls over the golf cart and Raven turns around in her seat to see a giant creature made up of Gnomes chasing them. She slams the gas pedal over Clarke’s foot. “I told you so!”

Clarke looks back at the monster closing in on them.The giant Gnome punches the ground. Little Gnomes scatter around but they quickly assemble into a giant hand once again. “

It’s getting closer.” Raven shouts when several Gnomes launch themselves at the cart. Raven smacks them away with the shovel as Clarke smashes one of them that leap at her face on the windshield.

Behind them the giant Gnome uproots a tree and throws it on the road. Clarke spins the steering wheel, the cart skids off the road and crashes next to The DropShip. Clarke drags Raven out of the cart just as the Gnomes reach them.

“Stay back!” _Shit, where is Bellamy when you need him?_

“It’s the end of the road girls.” Finn says on top of the giant creature. “One of you _will_ marry us.”

They have to do something, anything. Clarke is looking wildly around to find something they can use when Raven steps forward.

“I gotta do this.”

She catches Raven’s arm. “Are you crazy? I’m not giving you up to them.”

Raven sends her a pained smile over her shoulder. “Clarke, I know we haven’t been great these past few days but just trust me, okay?”

Clarke nods dumbly.

“Alright Finn, I will marry you.”

Finn jumps down to the ground again laughing and extends her a ring. Raven kneels down to reach it. Clarke watches the scene unfold frozen. No, Raven can’t go.

“You may now kiss the bride.” Raven smiles. Clarke feels like she is about to be sick.

Just as Finn tiptoes up to her, Raven’s arm reaches back and she flips the switch on the leaf blower next to her. She jumps back and griping it with both hands directs the it at Finn who claws at the ground to avoid being sucked up. It’s payback time.

“That’s for lying to me.” She amps the power up on the blower to suck Finn’s body completely inside the machine. “That’s for breaking my heart!”

Clarke steps up behind Raven and wraps her arms around the girl, holding on to her hands to steady Raven’s grip on the leaf blower. “And this is for messing with Clarke!”

Over her shoulder Clarke’s eyes meet Raven’s.

_Together?_

_Together_.

They switch the power to out and blow away the Gnomes. They scatter off into the forest.

“It’s over Finn.”

 

 

“Raven are you alright?”

“Yeah. Yeah! It’s just-” She motions towards the forest where the last of the Gnomes disappeared to with a frustrated look on her face.

“I’m sorry.” Clarke says again. “This is my fault.”

“No. No, I know you were looking out for me. And if we didn't find out about this now what would have happened later?”

Clarke moves closer, her mouth opening to speak but Raven holds up a hand to shush her.

“He tricked both of us.” _I’m not angry at you_.

Raven is angry at Finn. Who went behind her back and cheated on her with someone she was starting to consider close despite the short time she had known Clarke. But not only that Finn had basically lied to her the entire time about who, what he was.

More than being angry at him she is also angry at herself. _Gnomes._ She has known a pile of Gnomes for years, how could she not suspect anything? Was it the awkward way he moved, that they hadn’t moved beyond a few kisses before? Ew.

Shit. A few hours ago she was laughing at the alien bobble-heads in the Gift Shop. Was _all_ of it real? She knows there is a jar of eyeballs on sale on the counter next to the register. They look fake but Raven swears the eyes follow her around the room.

When the adrenaline is gone everything hurts. Nothing makes sense. Raven needs time to process everything.

She doesn’t realize she is shaking until she feels Clarke up close, her hands smoothing down her shoulders.

“Raven.” Clarke still looks so apologetic and Raven wants to knock shoulders and laugh so she doesn’t have that guilty look in her eyes anymore but it feels too soon. She feels drained.

“I’m fine. It’s fine. I just need some time to-” She again waves her hands around as if the vague motion can encompass everything that went down recently.

“Yeah. Whatever you need.” Clarke says and tucks the hair strands that escaped from Raven’s ponytail during the leaf blower fight behind her ear. Raven nods slowly and heads back inside The DropShip.

 

 

Standing alone in the garden Clarke sees no evidence of what happened except the scattered pile of leaves Bellamy is sure to scold her about later. He was working in the garden this morning, Clarke thinks as she moves the leaf blower back to its place in the shed. He’ll get over it.

 _Will Raven?_ Clarke doesn’t want to lose Raven over this.

She doesn't want to lose the mechanic jokes she doesn’t actually get, the coffee Raven brings to their breakfast table with a bright smile and a carefree “Good morning losers”. She doesn’t want to lose the time she spends behind the counter braiding her hair, legs brushing Raven’s sides casual and warm. She doesn’t.

But Raven needs time, she understands. Clarke can give her that.

At least now Raven is also in the loop, she thinks and scrawls “ _Leaf blower_ ” under the weaknesses section on the Gnome page in her Journal.

 

 

The following morning Raven enters the kitchen like she usually does with four cups of steaming coffee for all of them. Bellamy winks at Clarke over her head.

Her hair is down from its signature ponytail. She sits down in front of Clarke and clears her throat pointedly. Clarke doesn't waste a second before her hands reach out to section Raven’s hair and start braiding it.

Octavia comes downstairs and shouts “Braid train!”. Then she sits behind Clarke to do her hair. Bellamy watches the girls having a quasi-sleepover ritual at the breakfast table before he comes up to them to ruffle all their hair one by one messing it up.

He escapes the kitchen with the three shouting after him.

 

**V.**

With Clarke it’s the Bigfoot.

With Bellamy it’s the Gobblewonker.

With Raven it’s Gnomes.

With Octavia it happens to be actual zombies this time.

 

 

Bellamy and Clarke sit out on the porch in the afternoons if there isn’t anything immediate to be done around The DropShip. Raven ditches her post at the Gift Shop and joins them even if there is.

Clarke opens the Journal and scribbles notes about their new findings in the open margins of the pages. There is also the fact that the mysterious author’s entries stop halfway and there are a lot of blank pages in it, she takes to recording their adventures there.

Clarke’s handwriting is loopy but neat. Raven’s letters are half penned out, words disjointed, as if her mind jumps ahead before her hand can catch up. Bellamy thinks they are desecrating a historical artifact or something, says if he was the author he wouldn’t be happy. Clarke says the author should be happy they are continuing his research.

Octavia joins them after the most recent tourist group leave the exhibits and Raven takes her signal to go back to the Gift Shop to receive the customers. Bellamy takes the Journal and hides it under any available surface whenever his sisters comes within the range of sight.

Clarke wanting to involve Octavia in what’s going around the town, confronts Bellamy about his behaviour even though Raven warns her to leave the Blake sibling relationship alone. _Look Bellamy is a great guy but you should know by now how unreasonable he gets about the little Blake._

She stills questions Bellamy but he shakes her off. “This stuff gets dangerous sometimes, I don’t want O to have anything to do with it.”

“Not knowing stuff like this exists around her might be more dangerous don’t you realize? It’d be worse if she was caught unaware.”

But Bellamy is still unwilling to get Octavia mixed up in their search for the mysteries in the Journal. Clarke decides to roll with it and just be there to help and/or protect Octavia when she has her inevitable meeting with the supernatural around Mt. Weather.

That day turns out to be closer than Clarke first anticipates.

 

 

Something is rotten in the state of Mount Weather.

More than usual, anyway.

Clarke starts seeing suspiciously well-dressed -all in black suits- people in town with sunglasses on their faces and radios taped to their ears. _Government? Secret Service?_

She asks around town but as usual gets no answers from the locals. Then she tries to approach one of the suited men but they always disappear somewhere before she can. Raven and Bellamy tell her those people appear in town once in a while and that it isn't anything too weird.

But over the week their presence gets to a point even Octavia notices and asks if there is anything strange going on in town. Clarke opens her mouth to launch into a speech but Bellamy holds his hand over her mouth and shakes his head.

Uncle seems incredibly tense as well which does nothing to reassure Clarke.

 

 

All of them are wasting away the afternoon once again on the porch while Uncle gives the tours one day, when they hear the screech of tires. There are a number of black cars lining up the dirt road to The DropShip. The sharply dressed men Clarke have been looking for jump out of them.

Raven goes back into the Gift Shop yelling. “Hey Boss, what’s the code word I’m supposed to yell when I see a government vehicle?”

Clarke looks at the Bellamy with a confused frown. _There is a code?_

Bellamy shrugs at her which somehow translates to _You know how your Uncle is._

Uncle’s voice booms out the speakers. “The DropShip is now closed. Everybody out!”

Clarke runs into the Gift Shop. “Uncle what is going on here? You _never_ close down shop.”

The old man shakes his head at her and goes out to join Bellamy at the porch, greeting the men at the steps with a jovial voice. “Welcome to The DropShip. What can I do for you gentlemen?”

“I’m Agent Emerson. This is Agent Langston. We are here to investigate reports of mysterious activity.”

Clarke perks up at the mention of mysterious activity. She takes another look at the agents, they might be the chance she has been waiting for to expose Mt. Weather for what it is. Uncle laughs them away. “You must be mistaken.”

The two agents look undeterred and shoulder their way into the shop. “If you’ll excuse us we are conducting an investigation.”

She walks up to Agent Emerson. “Did you say you were investigating the mysteries of this town?”

The man looks down his nose at her. “That information is classified. But yes. We believe there is a conspiracy of paranormal origin all connected to this town. We are just one small lead away from blowing the lid off this entire mystery.”

Clarke doesn't like the way the man is looking at her and she doesn't like the way he speaks as if words are coming out of his mouth but he is saying something entirely different. However, conspiracies of paranormal origin is what she is all about. She at least wants to try her chance with the government people no matter how shady they look.

She tilts her chin up. “I’m investigating the same thing. If we work together we can crack the case!”

Agent Emerson looks unimpressed but he still hands her a card. “If you have evidence to these claims we should talk.”

Uncle snatches the paper away, laughing again. “I’m sorry Agents. My niece has an overactive imagination. Paranormal town stuff is just part of the Gift Shop lore! Sells more tickets you know.”

Emerson and Langston look at each other before they move back to the exit. “We have other spots to investigate. We’ll be on our way.”

Clarke is about to run after them when Uncle slams the door with a tight smile on his face. “Come on now. How about you be a normal kid?”

“But-”

“Flirt with a boy or steal some pie off of a window sill or something.”

“Uncle you don't understand-” He tracks back upstairs and doesn't even look back at her. “Don’t go talking to those Agents.”

Bellamy and Raven nod at each other and Bellamy goes back to his shift.

Octavia looks greatly confused. “What was that about?” She can clearly see this is different than the time Town Sheriff visits to talk to her about smoking pot behind the supermarket, to the utter despair of her brother. There is something sinister to the agents’ visit but Octavia can’t put her finger on what exactly. “And what the hell is wrong with Clarke?”

When Octavia moves away getting no answer, Raven catches Clarke’s sleeve. “Maybe your Uncle is right. Can’t you go one night without searching for aliens or raising the dead or whatever?”

“I’m not gonna raise the dead.” Clarke huffs. “I just need a chance to show those agents my book.”

Raven shakes her head and moves away as well.

Clarke sighs. _That could have been my big break._

 

 

Octavia throws a party that night and invites friends from the town. There is even a karaoke machine.

“Oh it has the best songs.” Raven crowds. “ _We Built This Township On Rock and Roll. Danger Lane To Highway Town._ ”

Bellamy grabs the paper cup in his sister’s hands on his way to the kitchen with Octavia whining about never letting her have fun in the background. “Trust me Princess. You don’t wanna hear Reyes sing.”

For her credit Raven doesn't look offended at all. “Bellamy, karaoke isn’t about sounding _good_. It’s about sounding terrible. _Together._ ”

Clarke dodges through the crowd and plops herself on to the couch in the living room with a resigned sigh. Octavia throws herself next to her. “What got your panties in a twist Griffin?”

“It’s not fair. Finally I meet someone who can help me.” _Solve mysteries of this town_ , Clarke is about to say but she abruptly stops remembering Bellamy’s warnings. _Don’t involve O_. “With some stuff and Uncle goes and confiscates their card.”

“Why do you want to talk to those agents so bad anyway?” Octavia asks. Clarke shifts in her seat, Bellamy might just kill her. “You know what, doesn't matter. And maybe I shouldn't be telling you this but I’m pretty sure your Uncle hides everything in his room.”

“If I go in there, I will get in so much trouble.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” A smile slowly spreads across Octavia’s face. “That’s what makes it fun.” If her brother is going to confiscate her alcohol all night she needs something to entertain herself. Sneaking around the house sounds just about right.

 

 

Uncle’s room is on the second floor and his door is unlocked. There are multiple signs on it, _No Minors Allowed, Do Not Disturb, That Means You._

Octavia tells her she’ll be look out. “You go rustle through your Uncle’s weird old man bizz, I’m here.”

The room itself is more ordinary than Clarke expect. _Come on Uncle, where did you hide the card?_

She looks through his drawers. _Nothing._ Inside the closet. _Nothing._ Bedside table. _Nothing_. Inside the chest. Old dirty magazines. _Pretending I never saw that._ Her eye stops on a portrait of him on the wall. _Wait a minute_. She takes it down and sees a hole in the wall behind it, there is a box labeled Contraband. _Yes!_

Clarke pulls it out and rummages through it until she finds the card Agents gave.She dashes to the phone the bedside table and dials the number.

“This is Agent Emerson.”

“Hi! This is Clarke. From The DropShip. I have something I wanted to show you.”

“And you are sure this will help our case?”

“I’m a hundred percent positive.”

“Very well. We are on our w-” Uncle’s hand descends down the dial button and Clarke spins around. Octavia pokes her head through the door. “Sorry, Clarke.”

“Kid, why did you call those agents?” Uncle asks.

“I know you have been running around with that silly book of yours but I told you once, I told you a hundred times. It’s not real. There is nothing supernatural in Mount Weather.” Octavia looks at her confused. Clarke sighs, there is no way around it. If she wants to get it done she has to convince her Uncle too. Octavia is collateral damage right now.

“Yes there is! After everything that has happened around here, you have to know that by now.”

“All I know is that your weird obsession is going to get you in trouble one of these days.” He motions out. “Now go enjoy rest of your party.”

Clarke tags Octavia out as she leaves, the other girl asking “What were you on about in there?”

They disappear from the stairs before Uncle can hear her answer.

The man looks around frowning. _This is not good._ He goes up to the third floor.

 

 

Headlights of a black car illuminate the woods. Clarke runs up to the two men getting out with a still highly confused and disbelieving Octavia following her.

“I’m glad to see you. Working together we can crack all the big questions in Mt. Weather.”

She pulls out the Journal. “Trust me, this book is the lead you have been looking for.”

There is a furtive glance between the agents Clarke completely misses as she goes on. Octavia tenses behind her, she doesn't like the look on their faces.

“A full scale investigation. Forensics, researchers… Do you guys have a helicopter?” Clarke breathes. “Oh, I’m sorry. Helicopter _s_?”

“Kid, we’d love to believe you.” There is the glance again between the two men. “But, this just looks like more junk from your Uncle’s Gift Shop. You should sell that book to us.” He laughs but there is something forced in it.

Octavia grabs her shoulder. “Clarke let’s go.”

But Clarke isn’t ready to give up. “The book is real I’m telling the truth!” Octavia also sends her a disbelieving look.

“Gnomes, cursed objects, spells. Listen!” She flips open a page at random, desperate. “ _Corpus levitas. diablo dominium. mondo vicium!_ ”

For a second nothing happens. The agents are tensed and Octavia looks at her like she has completely lost it. Clarke is familiar with the look by now.

Then the ground starts shaking. It cracks open beneath her feet and Clarke throws herself aside to avoid falling in.

The rift widens and a gnarly hand reaches out with a groan.

There is a whole other look on Octavia’s face. Clarke is familiar with that too. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Hah! A zombie!” It speaks volumes to how this town has changed her that Clarke actually feels a little proud at the moment. “A real actual zombie. See? The spooky Journal, a hundred percent real.”

She is too preoccupied with her short victory that she doesn’t notice the zombie dragging itself towards her. Octavia does. “Clarke.” Clarke still has her back to the creature. “What? It’s just one zombie. Trust me, I see stuff like this around these woods all the time.” She turns around and comes face to face with the hanging jaw and dead eyes. “Clarke!” Octavia smashes a rock on its head dropping the zombie.

Clarke sends her a smile. “Good thing it was just that one.”

The ground shakes. Multiple rifts open in the forest floor. Scores of dead and decaying bodies dragging themselves out.

Clarke turns to the Agents panicked. “You guys can help right?”

Before Emerson or Langston can answer the undead are upon them and kicking and screaming the two men are dragged to the woods. Clarke meets Octavia’s eyes in the unholy glow from the craters in the ground.

“What have I done?”

 

 

The DropShip shakes. One of the guys, Miller, turns to Bellamy. “You think it’s an earthquake?”

Bellamy narrows his eyes and signals Raven as discreetly as he can. He turns to Miller. “Must be. I think you should get Harper and others. Drive them back to town.”

Miller nods and goes to gather the teenagers. The shaking is coming to a point they can barely stay standing when his headlights disappear down the road.

Bellamy is in Raven’s face instantly. “Where is Clarke?” Before she can answer he notices something else. “Where the hell is Octavia?!”

 

 

The two girls in question slam the door open and collapse inside.

Raven looks annoyed. “Clarke. What’s the one thing I told you not to do tonight?”

She is a little pleased when Clarke bows her head ashamed. “Not to raise the dead.”

“And what did you do?”

“Raise the dead.” She mumbles.

Bellamy looks out the window to see dozens of zombies flooding the open area around The DropShip.

“Clarke what the hell? And _I told you_ not to involve Octavia.”

Octavia jumps up from she has collapsed to. “Wait. _You knew?!_ ”

“This is not the time, O.”

“Damn right it is the time. You already knew about the crazy shit Clarke blabbed on about just now and you didn't tell me!”

Raven shakes her head, the resigned expression on her face Clarke has come to identify with the start of a Blake Siblings argument.

“Zombies!” Octavia yells again. “Goddamn zombies!”

Raven locks the door for all the good it might do. “Don’t worry, it might just be a really ugly flashmob.” Bellamy sends her a glare over his sisters head.

Clarke is flipping through the Journal to find a dispelling magic but comes up empty. She still looks highly entertained for someone chased through the woods by a horde of zombies and no immediate solution in sight. “You gotta admit this is pretty cool.”

Bellamy groans. Raven tells him he should be used to this by now. Octavia still looks she has been gravely wronged.

“How many horror flicks we have watched?” Raven asks. “We got this.”

“Where is the Boss?” Bellamy asks. Clarke immediately puffs up. “How is he supposed to help? He doesn’t even believe in the supernatural.”

 

 

Down at the entrance, watching the zombies closing on the house the four don’t see the lights flashing on and off on the third floor.

“Darn kid, she has no idea what she is messing with. She’s too stubborn, that’s her problem.”

He smiles. “Too much like her father I suppose. Well, I got to much on my mind to worry about those kids.”

He doesn't hear the commotion below and gets back to work.

 

 

There is a tense silence only broken by the groans coming from outside.

“Are you _absolutely_ sure there is nothing in the Journal about defeating zombies?”

"No, there is nothing on weaknesses!” Clarke says, her calm evaporating as the groans get louder. “This can’t be happening. I wanted answers so bad I put everyone in danger.”

“Now? _Now_ you admit this?” Bellamy yells.

“Now we are toast and it’s all my fault and no one can save us.” She continues.

“I have an idea.” Raven says, in a voice that screams Bellamy is not going to like it. “But it involves the military grade explosives your Uncle was trying to sell on the black market and we have to go out to get them from the shed.”

“Are you insane?”

It might be a rhetorical question. Bellamy has known her for a few years now and he knows anyone that enjoys explosions as much as Raven is not on the sane side of things.

“Do you have a better idea besides staying here and waiting till they break down the walls?”

But Clarke is already undoing the locks on the door and grabs the first thing her hand reaches. The handle of the portable karaoke machine. She runs outside and Raven grins at Bellamy. “No holding the Princess down, huh Blake?”

She rushes after Clarke, speed walking Clarke through her plan while they dodge the zombies on the lawn and circle towards the shed.

Bellamy on the verge of tearing his hair out turns to Octavia. “O, stay inside.”

“But-”

“But nothing O. Stay inside. Find anything we can use as a weapon.” She nods reluctantly still ready to argue with him if he knows her. But they really don’t have the time.

“Meet us back in the Gift Shop.”

He runs out and Octavia locks the door after him.

 

 

Their search through the shed for supplies don’t take long. Clarke locates the explosives and Raven wraps a long coil of wires around her waist. They are about to go out dragging the crates when a zombie looms behind Raven and Clarke lets out a scream. Before she can launch herself at Raven a shovel splits its skull open. Bellamy appears behind it and sends them an annoyed glare.

Between themselves Raven and Clarke manage to get the crates filled with explosives, while Bellamy beats of the horde, and put them on certain locations around The DropShip directed by Raven. She uncoils the wire around them and moves on to the next location light on her feet.

After they are done, they run back towards the Gift Shop. They are once again cornered when Clarke yells Bellamy to duck and swings the karaoke machine by the handle and destroys a zombie. “This thing makes a surprisingly good weapon.”

Unabashed Raven laughs when the door to the slams closed after them. Clarke smiles at her. Bellamy is hardly amused.

“So what’s the plan?”

“Wait until all the zombies draw close. Blow up the explosives. A ring of fire.”

“Barbecued zombies? Not bad.” Bellamy smirks at her, his earlier mood gone and Raven counts it as a win. She winks.

“You give me enough time and I’ll cook ’em real good.”

Clarke looks between Bellamy and Raven. She shakes her head, they are always so endearing when they flirt during life or death situations.

“What will we use to ignite?” She asks.

Raven looks around the Gift Shop pensive but another smile creeps back onto her face when her eyes land on the karaoke machine still clutched in Clarke’s hands. _Let’s Rock and Roll_.

After Raven gets to working on connecting the wires she dragged from outside to the machine to create a makeshift igniter, Clarke and Bellamy erupt into another argument.

_How dare she bring his sister into this mess._

_She was going to learn anyway. You are reacting out of proportion._

“There are goddamn zombies outside Clarke. How the fuck do you want me to react?!”

This is unbelievable. After everything they have been through together, all the weird shit they have seen, zombies are what Bellamy draws the line at? Really.

“ _You_ summoned them. _You_ get rid of them!” He shouts at her as he pushes the large display case up against the door to block it.

“I don’t know how! There is nothing written in the Journal. And for your information Blake I didn't summon them on purpose.” She shouts back.

“Clearly the Journal is in the best hands.” Bellamy hisses at her when she walks to the case to help him.

“Oh yeah, who has been saving our asses all summer? But I summon only _one_ zombie horde and-”

Octavia barges in with makeshift weapons -baseball bat with nails, a broken mop, a crowbar- and drops them on the floor. “Guys can you not do this, I don’t know, when we _don’t_ have flesh eating monsters trying to break in from the window.”

“Oh shit.” Clarke leaps from her place to grab the crowbar to smash the head of the zombie almost halfway in. “We need something to cover the window.”

 

 

Fortunately there is a toolbox in the Gift Shop and Bellamy nails pieces of the hardwood floor Clarke tears down. She is not fast enough but Octavia turns out to be incredibly handy with a baseball bat and beats back all the zombies that push through while Bellamy is trying to finish the job.

“Hey, remember that time you thought Collins was a zombie?” he barks and Clarke freezes for a second, clearly she didn't know shit back than if she couldn't distinguish an undead from a pile of Gnomes any more than she could a cheating asshole from a decent guy. Raven’s laughter drifts to them from her place on the floor and Clarke relaxes.

“Raven?” Their eyes meet and she winks. “I’d pick you first.” Raven sends her a soft smile.

Clarke can kick zombie as just as she kicked Finn’s. Raven will help.

 

 

When Raven finishes splicing the wires she jerks her head towards the employees only back entrance into the house. “We don’t want to be here when things go boom. Let’s move upstairs.”

They comply quickly running towards the stairs and only stop when the wire connected to the karaoke machine Raven’s carrying can’t stretch anymore. Clarke leans agains the second floor railing. Octavia looks out the window in the corridor. “The zombies are all gathered the walls.”

Raven nods and presses the Play button.

“Now you undead jerks. Ready to die twice?”

 

 

When the fires die down and they go out they see the ground around the place is completely scorched. Even the tree line immediately circling the open area in front of The DropShip isn’t spared from the blast.

There are remains of the zombies on the ground all around them.

Clarke kicks at a skull.

“Sorry guys. I ruined everything.”

Octavia laughs and slings an arm around her shoulders. “Are you kidding me? I got to fight zombies tonight! No party could ever top that.”

Bellamy sighs from somewhere behind them. Muttering something along the lines of _See, this is why we shouldn't have involved her._

“Man, we got a lot of zombie damage to clean up.”

 

 

 

Agent Emerson drags himself to the car battered and bruised. Langston is dead but it can’t be helped.

He radios back to the Mountain.

“Sir, we have found the target.”

 

 

 

Coming Up: _**Part Two: In Which There Are Other Games And Other Players**_

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if this was actually funny or if my sense of humour has gone to shit. You be the judge. 
> 
> Also this project started out as Clexa but somehow everything I touch turns into polyamory and I suddenly had Bell, Raven and my beautiful heroine Clarke doing it after arguing about ghosts.


End file.
